Improvement in transportation-boxes for fruit



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHRISTIAN B. SIGWALD, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION-BOXES FOR FRUIT, 80C.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 216,535, dated J une 17, 1879 application filed April 1, 1879. I

form a part of this specification.

The figure in the drawing is an elevation, partly in section, for the purpose of showing the construction of the invention.

This invention has relation to boxes or crates for transporting perishable articles of food; and to that end it consists of a box made of wood, having double sides, top, and bottom,

between which is an antiseptic medium, such.

as tar-paper or other suitable material, the interior being lined with an absorbent, such as blotting-paper or the like, a detachable icechamber being placed inside, all of which will be hereinafter described more fully, and particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying 'drawin g similar letters of reference indicate like parts of the invention.

The sides, top, and bottom of the box or crate are made of two pieces of boards, A and B, having the grain running at right angles to each other to give the necessary strength and rigidity, and at the same time reduce the weight to the minimum.

Between the boards A and B are placed sheets of tarred card-board G, which act as a non-conductor, and is also waterproof, besides furnishing a safeguard against the attack of insects or rodents.

The interior of the box is lined with blottingpaper D, or similar absolvent material, whereby any moisture contained or generated in the box may be absorbed and retained without causing damage to the contents.

A rubber or gum gasket is secured to the top of the box in such a manner as will make an air-tight joint between the top and the bottom proper when the former is firmly secured to the latter.

An ice-box, G, with a water-tight cap, 9, is set in a shoe, H, in the center of the bottom of the box, and the ice-box G is of the same height as the internal depth of the box in which it is placed, so that the cover of the box pressing upon the cap 9 of the ice-box Gr holds it securely in place without other fastenings.

The corners of the box or crate are durably bound with metal to protect them in transit.

A movable perforated shelf, I, is attached to the box, which will serve as a divisionfor separating different kinds of articles when it may be desirable to send more than one kind in the same box.

The simplicity, utility, and durability of this invention are obvious, and require no further description.

I am aware that refrigerating transportation-cases have been used in which the refrigerating-case has been provided with a central ice-box; also, that it has been internally lined with paper; and such I do not desire to broadly claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and useful, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-

The combination, with the casings A B,having the antiseptic paper 0 between them, the casing B being internally lined with the absorbing-paper D, of the centrally-placed detachable ice -box G, secured in place by the coverof the case AB and the shoe H, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I hereby affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHRISTIAN B. SIGWALD.

Witnesses:

M. S. KLINoK, A. MEYER. 

